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Georgia election server reportedly wiped in wake of lawsuit
There's something going on in Georgia. First, the state rejected help from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to inspect its voting equipment for potential hacker inroads. Strangely, the man responsible for this and a massive private data leak, Georgia's Secretary of State Brian Kemp, was placed on a DHS election cybersecurity panel. Now the Associated Press reports that a computer server important to a lawsuit against Georgia election officials has been wiped clean right after the suit was filed.
Intel's push for petabyte SSDs requires a new kind of drive
There aren't many ways to make data center storage exciting, but mentioning a drive that could hold up to one petabyte (1,000 terabytes) comes close. Intel is making the case to swap out old disk-based drives in data centers with SSDs, and as part of that it's showing off a new "Ruler" form factor. Instead of molding to the 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch size of traditional drives or just the dimensions of a PCIe slot, its long skinny shape fits into a standard rack mounted server. As TechGage notes, with regular 10TB hard drives, slapping together a petabyte's worth would fill up a 100-bay 4U server. The new Ruler drives aren't available yet, but Intel claims it will offer them with both its Optane and 3D NAND SSDs in the "near future."
Intel's first hyper-fast 3D drive is meant for servers
At last, Intel is making a stand-alone drive based on its extremely fast 3D storage technology... although you're probably not about to pick one up yourself. The chip maker has unveiled the Optane SSD DC P4800X, a drive destined for the PCI Express or NVMe slots in servers. It only has 375GB of space, but its extremely low latency (typically under 10µs) and 2GB/s throughput means that it can serve as either a memory cache or storage. If you're involved in high-performance computing, online shopping or other categories obsessed with gobs of RAM and rapid turnaround times, this is theoretically your dream device.
The tech that makes MMO development easy for indies
SpatialOS is the technical foundation that makes massive, persistent, online world-building possible, even for small video game studios. Think of large, mainstream games like Destiny or Elder Scrolls Online: These are huge universes that support thousands of players at a single time. It typically takes millions of dollars and hundreds of people multiple years to make one of these games -- let alone support it post-launch -- which is one reason it's notoriously difficult to secure funding for the development of massively multiplayer online games. However, SpatialOS puts a spin on this standard. Improbable's computational platform offers cloud-based server and engine support for MMO games, allowing developers to easily create and host online, multiplayer experiences with persistent features. SpatialOS first made a splash at GDC 2015, when it promised to power MMO games with a swarm-like system of servers that switch on as they're needed in locations around the world.
The truth about Trump's secret server and Russia
It's hard not to follow the hacks and cracks of the election, even if you don't want to -- every day there's a new accusation or hysterical revelation. So you no doubt saw "Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia?" postulating that Donald Trump's connections to Russia were confirmed with the discovery of a secret email server. That story came from Slate and was based on a connection a researcher found between a Trump Organization server and a Russian bank. News outlets took the bait and ran with it, telling us that this was as damning as it appeared.
Plex Cloud lets you dump your home media server
Thanks to streaming, physical formats like CDs and Blu-rays aren't as popular than they once were. Some people choose to sign up for a monthly subscription like Netflix or Spotify, while others take the DIY approach. For many years, Plex has helped people build their own media collections and stream that content to (nearly) every connected device they own. However, it required either a computer or Network Attached Storage (NAS) to do so. Today, the company has opened a new avenue in its media streaming strategy with the launch of Plex Cloud. Gone is the need for the server in the cupboard, replaced with an Amazon Drive subscription and a Plex Pass.
Clinton tech says he warned of email server violations in 2009
The FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server continues to turn up important new details. Reuters has found interview summaries showing that Bryan Pagliano, a technician who joined Clinton's team when she became Secretary of State, says he shared concerns about the legality of the server with chief of staff Cheryl Mills back in 2009. Two colleagues pressed Pagliano to bring up the server with Clinton's "inner circle," according to his statements, including one who was specifically worried about a possible "federal records retention issue." One said he "wouldn't have been surprised" if there was classified info passing through.
Read the FBI's Clinton Investigation documents for yourself
The FBI released documents today about its investigation into presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a home email server during her time as Secretary of State. After the investigation, the Department of Justice decided not to file charges. Clinton was found to have not deleted sensitive emails, but the State Department called her actions "extremely careless."
FBI talks to Hillary Clinton about her private email server
It's no secret that Hillary Clinton broke rules with her private email server. However, the FBI still wants to know whether or not she played fast and loose with classified messages... and it just got a first-hand account of events. Clinton's staff have confirmed that the presidential candidate voluntarily submitted to a 3.5-hour FBI interview over her email use on July 2nd. Her team isn't detailing the exact questions due to "respect for the investigative process," but it's safe to say that law enforcement was wondering if Clinton took sufficient steps to protect top secret email.
Man erases thousands of websites with a bad command (update: it's a joke)
As one business owner showed, things can go spectacularly wrong when you don't backup properly. User "bleemboy," who runs a site-hosting business with 1,535 customers (!), wrote to a server forum saying he was using a bash script command to erase some specific files. The command he used, "rm -rf" is infamous in Linux circles for causing disasters, thanks to the "f" part that forces it to proceed without warnings. Normally, his script only deletes specific files, but something went wrong and "all servers got deleted and the offsite backups too," since they were mounted to the same machine.
Microsoft wants to put data centers at the bottom of the sea
Microsoft is on a mission to put its server farms at the bottom of the ocean. That might sound self-destructive, but there's method in the madness -- such an approach, the company believes, could make data centers faster, greener and easier to set up. In August last year, engineers placed an enormous steel capsule 30 feet underwater in the Pacific Ocean. Inside was a single data center rack, enveloped in pressurised nitrogen to keep it cool. The crew couldn't reach it, at least not physically, but it didn't matter -- the setup worked, going so far as to run commercial tasks for Azure.
Engadget giveaway: Win a TS-251+ two-bay turbo NAS courtesy of QNAP!
If you're dealing with stacks of digital content for your home or small office, it helps to have a centralized place to store and access it 24-hours a day. QNAP's TS-251+ two-bay turbo NAS is more than just basic storage, though, it can wirelessly stream multimedia files via DLNA, AirPlay or Bluetooth and supports movies in Full HD with 7.1 surround sound through HDMI. There's a remote, too. On top of that, it can run multiple virtual machines with Windows, Linux, UNIX or Android-based software and serve as a Surveillance Station recorder. We're giving away a TS-251+ NAS to one lucky Engadget reader this week. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning.Winner: Congratulations to Aaron L. of Pleasant Grove, UT!
State Dept. releases more Hillary Clinton emails, around 150 classified
As the saga over Hillary Clinton's emails from her time as Secretary of State continues, the State Department tonight released the largest bundle of recovered messages yet. Amounting to some 7,000 pages, officials told Reuters they include some 150 emails marked as classified, which have had passages redacted. The Clinton campaign continues to maintain that her use of a private email server was not a problem, and that messages were classified later, not at the time they were originally sent. So what's in the database? You can search it yourself, to find tidbits including Clinton asking for the broadcast times of Parks & Recreation and The Good Wife and an entirely odd one marked "Gefilte Fish." In another, she asks adviser Huma Abedin to teach her how to use a new iPad when it arrived in June 2010. Riveting stuff.
Google's next data center will be a converted coal plant
Google is constructing another data center in the US, but the location it's settled on might surprise you. Instead of building a site from scratch, the company has decided to redevelop an old coal power plant in Alabama. The Widows Creek factory in Jackson County is scheduled to close in October due to changing regulations about the storage and monitoring of coal ash. It's been generating power since 1952 and Google plans to repurpose some of its infrastructure, such as the electric transmission lines, for its new data center. However, it doesn't want dirty fossil fuels powering its servers. Instead, it'll be working with local authorities to source new renewable energy projects that can feed into the electrical grid. Like its data center in Finland, which was once an old paper mill, it's a creative way to adapt a site that has already benefitted from years of investment.
Kaspersky releases decryption tool that unlocks ransomware
You never should have clicked on the email attachment from that Nairobian prince. Now ransomware's got you locked out of your own computer and is demanding money before you can use it again. But before you reach for you wallet, take a look at this decryption key generator that Kaspersky has built. The Netherland's National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) recently got its hands on a CoinVault command-and-control server (a type of ransomware that has been infecting Windows systems since last November) and, upon examining it, discovered a large database of decryption keys. The NHTCU shared this information with Kaspersky which used it to build the Noransomware decryption tool. Granted, the program isn't 100 percent effective yet -- it's not like the NHTCU got all of the potential keys off of that one server or anything -- but as police forces around the world continue to investigate the CoinVault ransom campaign, Kaspersky expects to grow the key database and further improve the tool's functionality. Plus, it's still better than paying some schmuck hacker to give you back your digital dominion.
Hillary Clinton ran her own email server while in office
Just because Hillary Clinton wasn't using work email as Secretary of State doesn't mean she was throwing caution to the wind -- if anything, she may have been shrewder than most. The Associated Press has learned that Clinton conducted official business using an email server registered to her home. It's not clear exactly where the server was or who ran it until 2013 (probably not internet 'inventor' Al Gore), but the move gave the politician a lot of control. Since the email was strictly hers, she could decide if and when she turned over messages to the government or lawyers. It may have also let her toughen up security versus off-the-shelf services. If the server was in her house, she would have even had the Secret Service offering physical protection.
IBM's monster mainframe is built to handle your mobile shopping
Shopping from your phone is a big deal these days, but it requires a lot of effort behind the scenes to run smoothly -- when there are thousands of people tapping "buy" in short succession, they can easily bring a server to its knees. That crush might not be a problem for stores that have IBM's beastly new z13 mainframe, though. The system's gobs of CPU power (the "world's fastest microprocessor," IBM claims), memory and bandwidth let it handle a whopping 2.5 billion mobile shopping transactions per day, or enough that even a mad rush like Black Friday shouldn't bog it down. It's fast enough to analyze every deal in real time, too, so it's more likely to catch someone who stole your credit card info before you have to dispute any unwanted charges. You'll probably never know which specific apps and sites are using the z13, but this giant computer might just save you from inordinate waits and rude surprises the next time you're ordering online. [Image credit: IBM, Flickr]
Elite: Dangerous server goes haywire, creates instant billionaires [Updated]
The Elite: Dangerous server has had a relatively smooth launch since it released just over two weeks ago, but all that changed last night when the server went absolutely haywire. A suspected transaction server failure caused a whole slew of bizarre bugs for those playing the game last night, from benign errors like players getting disconnected to catastrophic failures like deleting a ship's entire cargo, rolling back ship upgrades, and deleting credits. The worst problems involved players having ghost cargo that could be sold over and over again, allowing them to rack up millions of credits in minutes. Though the problems were reported promptly, the server wasn't rebooted until its usual maintenance period over six hours later. In a feat of remarkably bad timing, the server problems happened on a national holiday in the UK, and so the developers at Frontier were taking time off to celebrate the new year. There has been no official announcement on the problems yet, and players are speculating on the damage that would be caused or reversed if Frontier performed a server rollback. Reports from the Elite forum suggest that developers may not be back to work until as late as January 5th, at which point it's unlikely that developers will roll the server back. The damage from last night's errors continues to cause problems today. One player was left shipless and unable to log in when the server reversed a ship purchase transaction, and another's ship teleported back across the galaxy and is being held hostage at a station with no shipyard. Dozens of players have reported broken cargo holds or missing cargo and credits, and one player logged in this morning to find 5 billion credits sitting in his wallet. These events have naturally prompted a resurgence of complaints about Elite's always-online gameplay, as players have found themselves unable to play without problem even in solo mode. We have reached out to Frontier for comment.
City of Steam is merging EU servers on December 22nd
If you've played City of Steam in the EU and thought to yourself, "Man, there are just too many servers for this game right now," the developers agree with you, which is why the server list is being consolidated down to a single server as of December 22nd. Characters will be automatically transferred, with character names getting server tags to make sure naming issues sorted out before they arise. Players on the current EU3 server will be receiving a compensation package that includes a 90-day subscription and a variety of other materials for character advancement. The five-characters-per-server limit will be enforced with prejudice; the staff is simply deleting the oldest or least-played characters on an account if the merge puts someone over five characters on the final server. So take care of that issue before it arises on the 22nd.
ArcheAge servers are back up; Trion is sorting out in-game timers
If you're following the ongoing saga of ArcheAge problems, you probably know that the game had all of the servers shut down over a holiday weekend, which could theoretically solve the game's exploit issues in the same way that setting fire to your house solves any problems you have with your wallpaper. The server issues were stated to be a result of emergency maintenance, with community representatives denying that it was connected to servers overheating, DDoS attacks, or exploits. The good news is that out of the game's 21 servers, 16 were up and running last night, with the last five brought online early this morning. Players are promised compensation, which will be revealed later today. Unfortunately for players who had taxes due, the timers for all services continued to roll while the servers were down, so crops, housing plots, and the like were all still affected by time during the lengthy maintenance cycle. Trion says it is "definitely aware this is an issue for players with taxes due and is talking with XLGAMES about the best way to resolve it while the servers are offline." A server rollback is not in the cards. But at least the servers are back online. We'll have more updates on the compensation for players when it is announced.
